Brigette

“My girlfriend bought me a collared shirt for my birthday, mainly so I don’t get too far ahead of her when she takes me for a walk.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale

“Nice people don't necessarily fall in love with nice people.”
― Jonathan Franzen, Freedom

“But the first lesson reading teaches is how to be alone.”
― Jonathan Franzen, How to Be Alone

“I had started keeping a journal, and I was discovering that I didn't need school in order to experience the misery of appearances. I could manufacture excruciating embarrassment in the privacy of my bedroom, simply by reading what I'd written in the journal the day before. Its pages faithfully mirrored my fraudulence and pomposity and immaturity. Reading it made me desperate to change myself, to sound less idiotic. As George Benson had stressed in Then Joy Breaks Through, the experience of growth and self-realization, even of ecstatic joy, were natural processes available to believers and nonbelievers alike. And so I declared private war on stagnation and committed myself privately to personal growth. The Authentic Relationship I wanted now was with the written page.”
― Jonathan Franzen, The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History